English author Emily Brontë is best known for her novel “Wuthering Heights,” a multigenerational story of obsession, revenge and love set in the Yorkshire moors. “This Dark Night,” the first full-length biography of Brontë in over 20 years and written by Penn State Professor of English Deborah Lutz, draws on Brontë’s formerly inaccessible notebooks and manuscripts to bring new light to the author’s tragic and fiercely independent life.Lutz, the George and Barbara Kelly Professor in Nineteenth-Century English and American Literature, discussed in the following Q&A her new biography of Brontë and why readers still obsess over her novel nearly 200 years later.Q: Who was Emily Brontë?Lutz: Brontë grew up in a family of writers, and she collaborated with her siblings on all of her work. Both “Wuthering Heights” and her sister Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre” grew out of this shared writing space. While she composed her great, gothic novel, with its gloomy passions, she did chores around the house — sewing her own clothing, making bread and cleaning the parlor. In “This Dark Night,” I evoke her as an embodied self; I ask, what was it like to be in a woman’s body in 1830s and 1840s West Yorkshire? What were the sounds, smells, the feelings along the skin?Q: Why continue to study her almost 200 years after her death?Lutz: New lovers of her novel “Wuthering Heights” appear every day, it seems! And so much new research over the past 30 years changes the way we see her. She knew queer people, like Anne Lister — called Gentleman Jack and recently was the subject of her own HBO series — a local lesbian. And the character Heathcliff was likely based on a person of color, possibly the child of an enslaved person passing through Liverpool — a major stop for ships involved in the slave trade. When he first arrives in the novel, after being found on the streets of Liverpool, he is speaking a foreign language and is described as “black,” a “gypsy” and with the appearance of an Indian sailor. Brontë also witnessed the beginnings of the climate crisis. Textile mills and mining in her area polluted the air and streams, and some of the birds she so loved were going extinct.Q: What new insights did you discover in your research? Any surprises?Lutz: I was surprised at how much she revised “Wuthering Heights,” since it’s easy to imagine it coming from her fully formed. But it went through distinct versions, and she really labored over it.But also how quickly she wrote it! She finished it in about two years. And then, after her death, Charlotte revised it again, when it was reprinted. Charlotte had always been ashamed of the novel, finding it coarse, violent and immature. She made it more conventional by stringing together short paragraphs and smoothing out the local speech. This seemed like a real betrayal of her sister, given that Emily had her own eccentric voice and Charlotte tried to tame it.Q: The new “Wuthering Heights” movie starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi recently hit streaming. Any thoughts about the film or why we keep returning to it two centuries later?Lutz: The new film is a visual feast and the costumes and interiors are amazing. It seemed a shame, though, that only about 5% of the dialogue comes from the novel. The novel is mainly oral — it's a tale full of people talking to one another — so it’s a missed opportunity to ignore most of Brontë’s text. It was also a shame to have Heathcliff played by a white actor. It’s fairly unusual for a great Victorian novel to have a major character who is a person of color, and I think today filmmakers should run with that. (Francisco Tutella)
Speaking to Sandgren first, he detailed the creative process behind the film’s visual language, the use of weather as an emotional tool, and the technical decision to shoot on VistaVision and Sandgren details the creative process behind the film’s visual language, the use of weather as an emotional tool, and the technical decision to shoot on VistaVision and 35mm film.When asked about Fennell’s approach to the film, Sandgren stated, “We were about to design a film from scratch from her sort of mind… everything—and you will talk maybe with Suzie about it—but how she built sets just from a fantasy version of how she basically saw it.”With the movie notably shot on film, that choice also had a key reason. Sandgren explained it, “Emerald really felt that the grain was needed for the emotional story… in my opinion, 16 millimeter is the most poetic emotional of all of those usually because… there’s some nostalgia or something that is helping you feel the texture of the skin.”Of course, with this film, Sandgren had to work with VistaVision cameras. For that format, as he stated, “What’s good with VistaVision for us was that we could have the same film stock and the same format and then just have a VistaVision camera. To me, like everything you—every decision you make should have a reason… usually in emotional stories I think it always helps with film so far… to create that sort of—that you’re actually watching an impression of reality and not reality.”Sandgren had plenty more to say about the production, including how the film’s visual style was built around “heightened realism,” using a stage-bound environment to create a “magical” and “surreal” atmosphere. Key emotional beats were emphasized through weather motifs. Production designer Susie Davies further expanded this. For Davies, the key was the process of building the film’s “heightened, surreal” world on a soundstage, her meticulous approach to designing the contrasting environments of the Heights and Thrushcross Grange, and the close-knit collaboration between herself, the cinematographer, and the set decorator.Again, commenting on that “heightened realism,” Davies noted, “We were aiming for that sliver between reality and unreality. And when you’re on a soundstage, we aimed to make it feel real. We didn’t want anyone really to know, but ultimately… You end up with this weird sliver between reality and unreality.”Davies also recognized that this was something Fennell had wanted to do since her younger days. With that in mind, “This whole world building, you know, this teenage lens that we were going to show this story through, bringing to life her imagination was extraordinary.”As a great way to set things up for production designer Charlotte Dirickx, Davies talks about this continued collaboration. As she states, “She’s a real perfectionist, whereas I might cut corners for speed. She knows when to hold fast or, you know, her wealth of knowledge is like nothing else… yeah, she’s extraordinary and so talented with her eye.”For Dirckix, the experience did have its challenges. As she states, “The production involved highly unusual props and set details, spanning from real fish accented with lipstick set in resin jellies to massive fake strawberries crafted from cake. For the outdoor sets, the team referenced the stagey atmosphere of Florence Yoch’s gardens from Gone with the Wind and Fragonard’s painting The Swing, adding 12-foot weaves of dried gypsophila to construct a dreamlike background.This also spoke to the anachronistic take that was key to Fennell’s vision. “…We would take like a period shape, say for the furniture, but then upholster it in a kind of different or more modern fabric. So you’ve always got that slight jarring going on.”It’s this wide variety of choices that allows for the movie to stand out as much as it did in theaters. I was quite the fan and would have been happy spending so much more time with each of these three to dive even further into what the process of making so many exciting choices to realize this fully realized version of the world, originating with Emily Brontë and reimagined here by Fennell, was like. Given that all of these craftspeople worked on Saltburn as well, I’ll certainly be curious to see what they all tackle next. (Aaron Neuwirth)
I finally caught the latest film adaptation of Wuthering Heights last week and even though I knew it had been divisive I was still disappointed in a way I hadn’t imagined. I was prepared for the film to be tacky and over the top and too much, and that didn’t faze me at all. I welcomed it. The source material demands it, in fact. But I cannot forgive the fact that in the 2026 version of Wuthering Heights there is absolutely no haunting.What is Wuthering Heights without ghosts? It becomes a mildly sordid tale of the romance between two very beautiful people that ends when one of them dies, and it also makes Kate Bush’s song of the same name make no sense at all. A non-Gothic Wuthering Heights is a particularly odd choice because I’d assumed the auteur Emerald Fennell would have jumped at the chance to explore Heathcliff’s despair for dead Cathy throughout his troubled life and use his pain as an opportunity to get really weird. I still can’t believe Saltburn is still the only Emerald Fennell film with a very dirty graveside wanking scene.Ending Wuthering Heights at Cathy’s death is like ending The Great Gatsby after the big party, or ending The Secret History at the bacchanal. There is so much more that happens afterward—and it’s the uglier, messier parts that make great fiction great. As it stands the latest movie version is simply too pretty, with all of its rougher edges flattened out. I suppose I should have expected this, given that the role of Catherine is played by Barbie herself (Margot Robbie), after all.Fennell’s film is just one example of a phenomenon adjacent to whitewashing in film that I’ll call hot-washing. There’s nothing new about Hollywood adaptations featuring profoundly good-looking people, but film stars used to be made to look a bit more… regular, particularly before plastic surgery made the faces of so many A-list actresses look eerily similar.Hot-washing is when source material that’s complicated has its edges smoothed out by the casting of conventionally hot people who are made to look conventionally hot in a way that clashes with the source material, and it’s ruining a bunch of recent literary adaptations whose characters are meant to seem a little more real. Imagine if Bridget Jones’s Diary were remade in 2026 with Sydney Sweeney as the title character. (Maris Kreizman)
A contributor to Los Angeles Times writes about her 'bucket-list trip to Yorkshire'.This film is everything the book is not. It doesn’t adapt the novel so much as it uses it almost loosely as a starting point, and then turns the entire material upside down. Emily Brontë never imagined that her Cathy would be played by a Barbie-era actress, with a Charli XCX score blaring in the background, accompanied by an Australian Heathcliff and a boudoir-esque Isabella. In fact, there is reason to speculate that she would not be fond of any of these twists of events. Naturally, fans of her work aren’t either.The biggest disconnect comes from how the film markets itself: “the greatest love story ever told”. Yet, that’s never what the original story was. “Wuthering Heights” is not a romance in the traditional sense. It’s a cautionary tale about obsessive love, cycles of abuse, domination, vengeance, and the way toxicity echoes across generations. It’s about how that kind of love doesn’t just destroy the people involved, but everyone around them as well. The only sense of peace comes when those patterns are finally partially broken.Catherine and Heathcliff are often mistaken for the ultimate romantic ideal, but their connection is rooted in possession, mutual destruction, and something almost brutally confusing. It’s about the faint possibility of redemption through the next generation. The novel focuses on class difference, racism and discrimination, and deteriorating mental health. It never romanticises the eventual psychosis.However, the movie barely explores these dynamics. Instead, it leans heavily into the intensity that comes with yearning. And yes, there is a lot of it, particularly crafted for the female gaze.I would actually argue that there is too much of it. The cast is perfectly capable of adapting their lines, but on screen, their chemistry is reduced to just playing dialogue. It pushes a narrative of forbidden love that is absent because of the plot lines that the movie doesn’t adapt.There is an interesting, unexpected positive note, though, which is the visuals. The direction is unapologetically bold. Emerald Fennell rejects the muted minimalism that a lot of modern films lean into and instead embraces a loud, saturated, and almost overwhelming aesthetic. The use of colour is striking: Cathy’s skin against her crimson outfits that represent her inner turmoil, the deliberate clashing tones, and the heightened tone of the palette that turns every frame into something picturesque.There isn’t a single scene or outfit that wasn’t carefully placed or thought out. The film uses vast, evocative backdrops to conjure a kind of sentimentality that feels aptly grand. A few instances that come to mind are the colder scenery changes during the lowest pivots, as well as Cathy’s room, which resembles the veins beneath our skin. The latter, in particular, perfectly articulates her eventual descent. Even the stylistic choices, like the almost anachronistic elements and the unexpected costume influences, add to the film’s identity, allowing it to go beyond the boundaries of traditional period drama.At times, it feels like the film is more interested in being seen than being understood and strangely, that’s where it succeeds the most. Even when the narrative falters, the imagery carries it. You could honestly watch this film purely for its cinematography and walk away satisfied.“Wuthering Heights”— intentionally titled with quotation marks—exists here as more of an idea than an adaptation. A reinterpretation, a reimagining that prioritises emotion, aesthetics, and atmosphere over fidelity. Emerald Fennel said her goal was to capture the experience of a teenage girl reading a romance book for the first time. She clarified several times that she has no intention of adapting the book but rather depicting her own interpretation of it. Watching the movie with that in mind might leave less shock and bitterness, and could even satisfy a cinephile who prefers the visuals. (Tinath Zaeba)
Brontë CountryIt is difficult to imagine a fictional tale more gothic, inspirational and remarkable than that of three brilliant sisters who lived in relative isolation on the edge of the Yorkshire Moors, secretly battling their socially conscripted futures by writing poems and novels that they dared not publish under their own names.Two of those novels — ”Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë and “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontë, are still considered masterworks, influencing subsequent generations and endlessly adapted for film and television. (In the ultimate Yorkshire crossover, Wainwright wrote the breathtaking two-part Brontë biopic “To Walk Invisible,” which everyone should see.)The Brontë Parsonage Museum, and the town of Haworth which it overlooks, is very much a tourist attraction. An information annex, gift shop and public restroom have been added behind it, but once you enter the small garden that stands between the parsonage’s front door and St. Michael and All Angels’ Church, you are in another world.In 1820, Patrick Brontë, recently appointed incumbent of St. Michael, moved his wife, Maria, and their six children into the parsonage where they all lived for the rest of their natural (albeit in most cases, short) lives. Maria died in 1821; the two older children, Maria and Elizabeth, died four years later after being sent to a typhoid-plagued school Charlotte would pillory as Lowood in “Jane Eyre.”The museum is meticulously restored to reflect the years that the surviving children — Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Branwell, the only son — were young adults. The dining room table, where the sisters wrote, is strewn with manuscripts, quill pens and tea cups; a bonnet and shawl bedeck a chair in the small kitchen. Patrick had his own study but it is difficult to imagine three women being able to write separate works, never mind classics, in such close quarters. Ironically, only Branwell’s room, papered with sketches and poems, looks like an artist’s refuge.Unlike his three sisters, Branwell, his artistic career stunted by alcoholism and an opium addiction, never published. He died of tuberculosis in 1848 at 31.If any place should be haunted, it is the Brontë parsonage. Shortly after Branwell’s funeral (and just a year after “Wuthering Heights” was published), 30-year-old Emily also died of tuberculosis, expiring on the sofa that stands beside the dining room table. A few months later, after the publication of her second novel, “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall,” Anne, 29, succumbed to the disease in nearby Scarborough, just south of Whitby.Charlotte, who wrote two more novels after “Jane Eyre,” was the only sister to be celebrated during her lifetime. She married and then died at the parsonage in 1855 at 38 of complications from her first pregnancy. Only Patrick lived to old age — 84 — dying in 1861 in the home where he had served for 41 years.But it is not a sad house; instead visitors are left to wonder at the genius, resolution and audacity that roiled the quiet rooms and halls where the sisters secretly wrote and sent out their manuscripts, all initially under the the names of Currer (Charlotte), Ellis (Emily) and Acton (Anne) Bell.The steeply descending main street of Haworth is filled with tea shops, pubs and stores clearly dedicated to pleasing Brontë pilgrims, but its basic form, including the original stationery store where the sisters once bought their paper, remains the same.As do the moors that stretch behind the parsonage. On a walk to the Brontë Waterfall (more like a small but still lovely rill) and Top Withens, the ruin of a 16th century farmhouse believed to have inspired “Wuthering Heights,” the wild silence and sweeping vistas are even more transporting than the parsonage. One imagines not the ghost of Cathy or Heathcliff, but a trio of women, very much alive and striding through the heather, their minds alight with the stories they would tell, set among similar terrain. (Mary McNamara)
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by Emma Connally-BarklemBlack Cat Poetry PressCover by @emilyingondalThe High Flight: 50 Poems Inspired by Emily Brontë’s Hawk is a poetry collection by Emma Conally-Barklem that draws inspiration from the legend of Emily Brontë’s beloved hawk, Nero. Through fifty poems, the book explores the wildness, imagination, and emotional intensity associated with Brontë’s world, blending literary homage with a strong sense of nature and place.‘By turns mythic, soaring, earthbound and unyielding, this collection is a dazzling addition to the Brontë canon.’Karen Powell, author of Fifteen Wild Decembers‘A truly astonishing collection bristling with piercing insight and originality- this is Conally-Barklem at the height of her powers’Sharon Wright, journalist and Brontë biographer‘One of the most interesting British poets working today’Graham Watson, author of The Invention of Charlotte Brontë
4. The Chateau on Sunset by Natasha LesterRelease date: June 2Read if you liked: Eligible by Curtis SittenfeldIt’s been a while since I lost sleep over a book that was not a mystery—and Natasha Lester’s glamorous retelling of Jane Eyre did it for me. Lester’s novel transports us to the sparkling world of Hollywood and the most famous hotel on the Sunset Strip. Aria Jones has spent her entire life being invisible in the Chateau Marmont. But when a brooding rockstar buys the hotel she calls home, Aria quickly finds that what she thought she wanted is anything but. (Marissa Wu)
Emerald Fennel's [sic] Wuthering Heights is divisive at best, with its radical reinterpretation of Emily Brontë's classic, but no one can deny the sizzling chemistry between its two leads. Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi as the ill-fated Catherine and Heathcliff raised eyebrows, as the romance between the two took a steamy, intimate turn, ultimately ending in tragedy for everyone around them.Wuthering Heights got backlash for turning Cathy and Heathcliff's destructive dynamic into something romantic, and there were concerns about casting all-white characters, particularly Heathcliff, who had been described as a dark-skinned man. Even so, Wuthering Heights had hearts racing, and thankfully, there are several more great steamy romantic titles to choose from to recreate that feeling. (Fawzia Khan)
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Fri 15 May, 5:30pmBrontë Parsonage MuseumJoin us to look closely at a series of drawings and prints by British Modernist Edna Clarke Hall (1877-1979), whose obsession with Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights inspired her for decades. Art historian Eliza Goodpasture will bring these works to life in the context of early twentieth-century British art, as well as the artist’s own life. She yearned for the passion she found in Brontë’s novel, which was always missing from her own Victorian marriage. Working with both expressive watercolours and printmaking techniques, she made hundreds of works inspired by Wuthering Heights, some of which are now in the Parsonage’s collection.Eliza Goodpasture is an art historian and writer. She is currently a Research Fellow at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. She holds a PhD from the University of York.
A somewhat divergent take on the Emily Brontë classic, Emerald Fennell's "Wuthering Heights" mixes soapy, anachronistic plot elements into the novel's brew of class issues, generational trauma and forbidden, star-crossed love. The story of rich girl Cathy Earnshaw (Margot Robbie) and Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi), the foundling boy her father brings home one day, has been told many times before — but never quite in this florid manner. It's not restrained, and it's anything but civilized — but it is a lush visual feast laden with passion that will liven up an afternoon.If you loved this take on "Wuthering Heights," then you're probably going to be intrigued by other frankly-written stories about anachronistic historical heroines, or erotic tales of frustrated love. This list of five films contain heartbreaking tales of lovers who are felled by miscommunication, stubbornness, bad luck and other forms of havoc which ruin — and sometimes resurrect — their sublime faith in togetherness. Whether true love has its say or not, these five films will definitely appeal to anyone who had a good time watching "Wuthering Heights.'Jane Eyre"Jane Eyre" and "Wuthering Heights" are both beloved books that have multiple movie adaptations — 47 versions of the former exist to the latter's 30. The 2011 big-screen version of "Jane Eyre" will appeal to people who loved the 2026 edition of "Wuthering Heights" because it knows how to ratchet up the melodrama while leaving you invested in the impossible love story between Jane (Mia Wasikowska) and Edward Rochester (Michael Fassbender, in one of his best movies). It's more serious and certainly more genteel than "Wuthering," but no less intense for that sense of reserve.The film follows Jane as she becomes a governess at Thornfield Hall, located deep in the moorland. She is an orphan whose cruel childhood has formed her into a woman of staunch but caring character. Yet she's unprepared for the secrets that Edward harbors, even as she begins to fall in love with him. Ultimately, she must have the courage to run from Edward's vagaries — even if it means shedding their fragile new bond. (Melissa Lemieux)
HBO Max has become the Jacob Elordi channel, first with Euphoria and now with the success of Wuthering Heights. The controversial adaptation of Emily Brontë’s seminal novel was met with division. The period piece was such a wild departure from the book that it could hardly be called an adaptation at all.While Wuthering Heights is admittedly climbing the streaming charts, that doesn’t necessarily mean it is the best example of Elordi’s work. Already an Oscar nominee, the actor is one to watch. Sadly, his best role to date was one that passed many viewers by in Sofia Coppola’s A24 film, Priscilla. (Carolyn Jenkins)
We had two readings from books (I suppose we had a slight literary theme for our wedding). I read from the final chapter of Jane Eyre, which begins with the famous line “Reader, I married him. A quiet wedding we had, he and I, the parson and the clerk, were alone present.” (Deirdre McArdle)
Xiaoyan DongThe Yeats Journal of Korea (한국 예이츠 저널) Vol.79 (2026.04) pp.33-50This paper examines Jane Eyre, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Mrs. Dalloway as primary texts for a comparative study of female identity under structural oppression. Situating each heroine within her distinct historical context—Victorian England, the mid-twentieth-century American South, and early twentieth-century Britain—the analysis traces how Jane Eyre, Blanche DuBois, and Clarissa Dalloway navigate the intersecting pressures of social institutions, economic dependency, and family structures. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s theory of disciplinary power and Judith Butler’s concept of gender performativity, the study identifies three distinct modes through which patriarchal power operates: visible coercion, internalized discipline, and total erasure. It then examines the forms of self-alienation these modes produce and the corresponding strategies of resistance each woman develops within her structural constraints. By bringing these three figures into sustained parallel analysis, female identity under patriarchy emerges not as a single story of victimhood but as a differentiated spectrum of entrapment and agency, yielding a more precise understanding of how women negotiate and reconstruct selfhood under systemic oppression.
MovieWeb reports that Greenland 2 has dethroned Wuthering Heights 2026 as the most popular movie on HBO Max.Located in Thornton, its official opening was marked by a visit from HM Queen Camilla as part of a Royal Visit.During her time at the house, Her Majesty met with committee members and volunteers, signed the guestbook, and unveiled a commemorative plaque.In celebration of the anniversary, a new exhibition will open on Friday, May 15, featuring a framed piece of wallpaper dating back to 1890 discovered during the property’s restoration.Anna Gibson, general manager, said: "We have had the most incredible first year at the Brontë Birthplace and have invited people from across the world to see this very special place."From a forgotten house on a village street, it has now become an internationally renowned literary centre protecting the Brontës’ legacy and inspiring generations to come."The birthplace has attracted national and international media attention over the past year, with features in The Times, The Telegraph, and on BBC One’s The One Show.A range of events have also taken place, including a standout performance by internationally acclaimed musician Guiem Soldevila and his group, who set 12 Brontë poems to music.The house has hosted two artists in residence: Chicago-born Garrett Wild and digital artist Sam Sharp.Committee member Chris Raine also delivered a talk about the Brontë Birthplace in Japan.Other notable speakers have included Ann Dinsdale, principal curator at the Brontë Parsonage; author Sharon Wright; writer and illustrator Dr Eleanor Houghton; Helen MacEwan of the Brussels Brontë Group; Dr Michael O’Dowd from the Banagher Brontë Group; and storyteller Irene Lofthouse.Literary fans have had the chance to own a piece of history, with original beams from the house offered for sale.The sale is helping to boost income for the house.Siblings Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne Brontë were all born at the house on Market Street.The building was acquired through the combined support of more than 700 individual investors and funding from Bradford City of Culture 2025, the Community Ownership Fund, the National Lottery Heritage Fund, and the Rural England Prosperity Fund.It is now managed by Brontë Birthplace Limited, a Community Benefit Society. (Harry Williams)
Ever since it landed on HBO Max, Margot Robbie's newest R-Rated hit has been a streaming sensation. However, as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end, and this past weekend, the film fell victim to a new post-apocalyptic arrival that quickly knocked Robbie's spicy smash down a peg. Today, it's down another rung on the ladder thanks to another movie that ties directly into HBO Max's latest success.Taking in $242 million at the box office earlier this year, Robbie's Wuthering Heights is a loose adaptation of Emily Brontë's 1847 novel of the same name. Also starring Jacob Elordi, the film follows the intense and destructive bond between Catherine Earnshaw and the orphaned Heathcliff. Featuring way more heat than Brontë ever could have imagined, the film was a big hit with audiences, earning a 76% on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics were more unforgiving of the darker interpretation of the classic story, rating it just 57%.Added to HBO Max on May 1, Wuthering Heights found continued success on streaming following its box office run. The Gothic romance held the #1 spot in the Top 10 in the United States for nearly two weeks, and still sits in first place on the global charts. That being said, its stranglehold on the North American list finally came to an end this past weekend thanks to none other than Gerard Butler. (James Melzer)
The track, which opens Charli XCX's Wuthering Heights album, pulses with a sense of growing dread, building from isolated, creaking strings to a blazing crescendo. (A "Wall of Sound," if you will.) To listen to it is to feel the same sense of confinement and madness present in Emily Brontë's novel. While I had my worries about Emerald Fennell's "Wuthering Heights" going into the theater, I was still excited to see how she deployed "House."Mere minutes into the movie, I got my answer, and I was underwhelmed."House" plays during the opening minutes of "Wuthering Heights," in which young Cathy and Nelly (Charlotte Mellington and Vy Nguyen) attend a frenzied hanging, then tear across the moors back to Wuthering Heights. The song fades as we get our first glimpse of the film's titular estate, a darkened blot against hulking rock crags.The song remains a banger, especially as the film version incorporates extra orchestrations by Anthony Willis. But while the song establishes a fittingly bleak tone for the rest of the film, its placement is odd. Why is this extremely claustrophobic track being used over a shot of Cathy and Nelly running with wild abandon across the vast moors? Why does this introspective, harrowing song serve as the soundtrack to a rowdy crowd scene? The visuals and song are separately entrancing, but they do not mesh. There's no sense of creeping dread or isolation. It's just Fennell throwing the song's climax at us in the hopes of overloading our senses. Unfortunately, in doing so, Charli XCX and Cale's refrain of "I think I'm gonna die in this house" loses its potency.It's not like Fennell couldn't have used "House" anywhere else. Cathy worries about wasting away in Wuthering Heights with her ruined father (Martin Clunes) before she meets Edgar Linton (Shazad Latif). Then, once at Thrushcross Grange, she realizes she's in a gilded prison. Not to be too literal, but if you have a song named "House," maybe tie it to a character's relationship to one of the film's two central houses!(After all, if my new husband painted my room the exact color of my face, mole and all, my reaction would absolutely be, "I think I'm gonna die in this house.")While Fennell doesn't use "House" to its highest potential, at least TikTok is on the case. The song has become a meme online, used to soundtrack moments of despair or unsettling images. (Belen Edwards)
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë: The Original Refusal to Be SmallLet's be real: Jane Eyre has been igniting personal revolutions in readers for nearly two centuries, and it shows absolutely no signs of stopping. A novel of intense power and intrigue, Jane Eyre dazzles and shocks readers with its passionate depiction of a woman's search for equality and freedom. Orphaned Jane Eyre grows up in the home of her heartless aunt, where she endures loneliness and cruelty. This troubled childhood strengthens Jane's natural independence and spirit.There's something almost radical about a Victorian novel that still feels urgently relevant in 2026. The questions Jane asks, about self-worth, about whether love should cost you your dignity, cut straight to the bone. When she finds love with her sardonic employer Rochester, the discovery of his terrible secret forces her to make a choice. Should she stay with him and live with the consequences, or follow her convictions, even if it means leaving the man she loves? Every reader who has ever faced a similar crossroads knows exactly what that feels like. (Matthias Binder)
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Keighley and District Local History Society presentsMay 13, 2026 @ 7:15 pm – 8:45 pmKeighley Civic CentreMay’s History Society meeting is on Wednesday 13th May 2026. It will include a talk from Brontë Parsonage Museum’s Principal Curator, Ann Dinsdale. Ann lectures and writes on aspects of the Brontës’ lives and social conditions in mid-nineteenth century Haworth. But on this occasion, her talk will focus on how the museum operates – a subject she is well-versed to talk on, having been working at the museum for over twenty years.The meeting will take place upstairs in the Civic Centre, on North Street. Doors open at 7.15pm and the meeting will start just before 7.30pm. Entry is free to History Society members, or £3.50 for anyone else who wants to just come along (booking is not required). Members can also choose to join the meeting via Zoom if they wish.
Wuthering Heights may be a love it/hate it type of movie considering all its polarizing opinions, but no matter what you think about it, one thing is pretty undeniable. It’s got style, and it’s got vision. After having a blast watching it in a theater packed with women earlier this year, I revisited it on streaming with an HBO Max subscription, and one thing I noticed even more this time is how Cathy’s fits stay true to one color palette the whole time, and I think it’s worth diving into.Of course, I couldn’t take my eyes off of all of Cathy’s clothes going full bodice core during both viewings, but this time all the coordination was impossible to look away from. [...]So, what’s up with these particular colors? While I would have theorized it would have something to do with red being the shade associated with passion and desire, when CinemaBlend spoke to writer/director Emerald Fennell, she had some interesting thoughts about why she dressed Margot Robbie in the same palette throughout. In her words:"When it comes to the color palette of the clothes, for example, it made sense that Cathy makes an imprint on the world that she's in. Cathy kind of like burns an image onto any space. And so, we wanted to make sure that her clothes were very graphic. So they're black, white, red and occasionally like a silver, because she's always sort of an indelible shape."Now this is interesting. Cathy needed to “burn” through every moment on screen. During the filmmaker’s chat with us, she also spoke about how the expression of a character’s personality through something like clothing is very specific to Gothic cinema. The genre often evokes intensity that we wouldn’t see in other movies, so the lavish use of red is all part of it. You can check out her full thoughts below:As she says, it’s not just about the costumes. It was also through the textures she decided to use throughout the sets. I know I’ll never forget this movie’s skin wall, which was actually fashioned out of actual scans of Robbie’s own skin to represent what it feels like for Cathy to be a “collector’s item” to her husband once she gets married.Fennell’s explanation of the Gothic genre also helps make sense of some of the objects in the movie being exaggerated sizes or how long we have to wait for Cathy and Heathcliff to kiss. Everything is more dramatic and hyperbolic than you’d expect from other movies.I don’t know about you, but I really appreciate Emerald Fennell’s eye for making her films very distinct, and Wuthering Heights knocks it out of the park in that respect. (Sarah El-Mahmoud)
'Jane Eyre' (Cary Fukunaga, 2011) – FilminApasionado drama de Charlotte Brontë que tiene en ésta la mejor versión cinematográfica que se ha hecho de su obra cumbre, Jane Eyre. Mia Wasikowska en la piel de la importante heroína está espléndida, frágil y poderosa a partes iguales. Impecablemente realizada y profundamente poética, la presencia de Michael Fassbender, Jamie Bell y Judi Dench elevan el filme a otro nivel. Una joya indiscutible del cine de este siglo. (Belén Ester) (Translation)
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Speaker: Irene Lofthouse (dressed as Nancy Garrs)Date: Tuesday 12 May 2026 6:30pmBrontë Birthplace / ZoomJoin nursemaid to the Brontës, Nancy Garrs, on a virtual walk to see Keighley through Brontë eyes.*PLEASE NOTE* Due to popular demand this talk will now be streamed live on Zoom. Please choose Standard for an in-person ticket and Digital for an online ticket. A recording will be sent out afterwards to all attendees.Why did the Brontës go to Keighley? How did they get there? Who did they visit? What was the town like at time: the people, the shops, the buildings? When would they make the journey?Discover where they shopped, heard and learned about music, found out about electricity, whooped with glee, developed drawing and painting skills, met and mixed with Keighley’s movers and shakers as well as the swelling number of migrants to the town.Based on Keighley Library’s ‘In the footsteps of the Brontës’ trail-booklet by Keighley Local Studies, Nancy Garrs will add her own comments on the Brontë family she knew at Thornton and Haworth.Irene Lofthouse is a first-generation Yorkshire lass of Irish heritage who has been telling tales since childhood. She has careered around many incarnations: caver, consultant, shoe-seller, storyteller, petrol-pumper, publisher amongst many others – but stories have been integral to them all. A cultural historian/researcher, writer, actor, Irene has appeared in a Ken Russell film, at the Edinburgh Fringe, featured on Radio 4, BBC Sounds, TV, stage, and at art/literature festivals performing her one-woman plays or giving talks. She’s particularly interested in making visible, invisible or forgotten lives and voices, in exploring new ways of seeing old stories and collaborating with literacy, historic agencies and universities to create accessible and fun learning resources. Co-founder of two community theatre groups, her poems and prose feature in many anthologies and she is a trustee of the JB Priestley Society, a trustee of the Undercliffe Cemetery Charity, a member of 26 Writers and The Friends of Bradford’s Becks.
Drawing on a vast quantity of unexplored archival materials, Deborah reconstructs the texture of Emily Brontë's days, bringing us closer to one of the greatest and fiercest writers we have, by showing us her creative process and her confidence in her strange art.This book has much to reveal to readers of Wuthering Heights, as we accompany Emily around the wild moorlands she loved so much. Also threaded through with the contemporary politics and events of the era (from the early labour movements of the Chartists and reformists, to the slave uprisings in the colonies), and authors and locals that Emily read about or knew (from proto-feminist Mary Wollstonecraft to the masculine lesbian Anne Lister).Featuring illuminating readings of her poems, This Dark Night takes us inside the world of Emily's irrepressible spirit and wild imagination.
Atmospheric and empathetic rather than revelatory, Lutz goes beyond recording events and facts to immerse readers in Brontë’s way of seeing the world, where imagination and the moorland landscape merge into one continuous vision.A thoughtful, imaginative portrait that brings fresh interpretation to familiar ground.
Lo esencial para aficionarse a la lectura es tener la inquietud de adentrarse en mundos y experiencias diferentes y, por lo general, es más satisfactorio que los libros elegidos sean resultado de una búsqueda intuitiva antes que de una recomendación. Por pura casualidad, el primer libro que -inapropiadamente- recuerdo haber leído de muy niño fue Cumbres borrascosas. El espíritu atormentado de Heathcliff, junto al carácter caprichoso de Catherine, y el áspero y desabrido paisaje en que se desarrolla la acción me impresionaron tanto que llegué a sentir como las palabras de Emily Brontë despertaban en mí confusas -y a veces terroríficas- emociones. Aunque en mi librería desentona un poco junto a La isla del tesoro o Cinco semanas en globo, sigue siendo uno de mis libros preferidos. (Manuel Sánchez Ledesma) (Translation)
Edited by Grace Milne RaeIntroduction by Polly TealeBodleian LibraryISBN: 9781851246748This inspirational book is a delightful gift for readers and fans of Charlotte Brontë’s novels.‘Cheerfulness is a matter which depends fully as much on the state of things within, as on the state of things without and around us.’From Jane Eyre to Lucy Snowe, Charlotte Brontë’s heroines think deeply on how to live a fulfilling life, often expressing passionate beliefs, heartfelt advice and pragmatic philosophy. This inspirational selection of short quotations, revealing their – and their author’s – innermost thoughts on early Victorian times, remains surprisingly relevant to us today. Drawn from Jane Eyre, Villette, Shirley and The Professor, the quotations cover a wide range of themes including happiness, love, feminism, work, truth, feelings and prejudice. This thought-provoking book, first published in 1912, is a delightful gift for anyone who loves to read Brontë’s novels.Charlotte Brontë (1816–1855) was the eldest of the Brontë sisters.Grace Milne Rae (1885–1987) was the daughter of Scottish novelist Janet Milne Rae.Polly Teale was the former artistic director of Shared Experience Theatre Company for whom she wrote and directed an award-winning trilogy of Brontë themed plays: Jane Eyre, Brontë and After Mrs Rochester (Nick Hern Books). She is now an arts psychotherapist.
Both Love London Love Culture and Northern Arts Review announce the Autumn performances of a new production of Sally Cookson's Jane Eyre in Colchester and Chester.
Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of Wuthering Heights is a popular hit, but it pales beside the ‘towering nightmare’ of Emily Brontë’s original. Let's never forget its power. (...)It was Saint Valentine’s Day, wasn’t it, when “Wuthering Heights” was let loose on the world, dividing its audience while filling cinemas and leading publishers to reprint the stormy and extraordinary 1847 novel amid the studio’s marketing circus. Now HBO Max are streaming the movie with Margot Robbie as Cathy and Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff, so that you can watch this shattering romance over and over in the company of your loved ones with whatever tubs of ice cream and home-made popcorn you think fit. But before you do, it’s worth taking another look at how extraordinary the writing is in this towering Romantic nightmare of a book. (...)It’s difficult to grasp the form in Emily Brontë. It’s certainly not akin to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre or Daphne Du Maurier. Emily Brontë has no formal mastery of form: she’s no Sophocles, she’s rather a Shakespearean writer whose untidiness has lent it the grandest kind of vitality which brings alive every improvised gesture and makes it seem inevitable. The lunacy of this is that everything is sex, therefore nothing is sex. The heart aches with the desolation of the elements it hits up against. (...)It would be a great thing if the book was read in its thousands once more. It is an extraordinary pagan horror show washed in the bitterest tears. But we shouldn’t be too hard on Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi.There is nothing sage or soothing about Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. Nothing but the appalling grandeur and the truth of art. How many babies will be called Heathcliff now? (Peter Craven)
As much as the Swedish DP may enjoy shooting in IMAX, Emerald Fennell’s vision for her reimagining of Emily Brontë’s seminal novel had a different ambition than the one he fulfilled for Denis Villeneuve on Dune: Part Three. The writer-director wanted her tragic period romance starring Margot Robbie (Cathy Earnshaw) and Jacob Elordi (Heathcliff) to have a tactile, impressionistic quality, hence the decision to shoot the majority of the piece on standard 35 mm film.When it came to landscape shots of the Yorkshire Moors — as well as wide interior shots involving Edgar Linton’s (Shazad Latif) decadent manor — the filmmakers sought a higher resolution for the sake of detail, but without sacrificing film grain. Neither standard 65 mm nor IMAX were going to uphold both of those requirements. Thus, Sandgren and Fennell opted for VistaVision, a large 35 mm film format that presents high resolution and just enough grain to maintain continuity with the rest of the film’s 3-perf 35 mm.“Each format will affect the emotions, and there’s a huge difference to me within the film formats. We tested 65, but Emerald was missing the grain, so we went for 35 to see the grain,” the Oscar-winning Sandgren tells The Hollywood Reporter in support of Wuthering Heights’ 4K release. “Our technical reason for VistaVision was to capture the landscape shots in a high resolution [with a finer grain] because they include small details that you want to see better. Basically, all real exteriors and wide-shot interiors were VistaVision.” (Brian Davids)
The recent movie Wuthering Heights is based upon the famous 1847 novel by Emily Bronte. But while this film is an attempt to reinterpret, not just reproduce, the original story, it only works some of the time. (...)For a time, the harshness of this Wuthering Heights is interesting; it’s good to see what the film’s 21st century lens finds beneath the surface of mid-19th century social disturbances. And Emily Bronte’s story about the conflict between the demands of a highly formal society and raw human passions leaves plenty of room for all manner of speculation.But the new film, I think, goes beyond rebellion against restraint to grotesque but empty gesture. The film loses control with Cathy’s costumes, angry sex and the color red. There’s so much red in the film the color runs past meaning and impact. Excess can be liberating – but maybe in moderation – because eventually you start rolling your eyes and hoping for a quick end to the movie. (Howie Movshovitz)
En Cumbres Borrascosas, al convertir a Isabella en una sumisa que da su consentimiento, Fennell da a entender que las acciones de Heathcliff, aunque siguen siendo perversas, resultan más fáciles de digerir para el público al hacer que su comportamiento parezca menos monstruoso… E incluso sexy. Andrea García-Santesmases Fernández considera que la película utiliza el consentimiento para validar un tipo de relación que de otra manera resultaría deleznable. “No se trata solo de un juego sexual puntual, sino que desde el primer momento Heathcliff le dice a Isabella que la va a humillar, que la va a utilizar, que la va a degradar. Estas amenazas parecieran diluirse porque las acompaña de un ‘¿te parece bien?’ a lo que ella contesta ‘sí’. De la misma manera, cuando la vemos atada con una correa, a cuatro patas, en medio de la inmundicia, viviendo literalmente como una perra, la violencia de la imagen se suaviza porque ella da a entender que eso es lo que quiere”, asegura.Para la sexóloga, el problema está en situar el consentimiento como una validación no solo legal, sino ética, e incluso, política, de una relación. “Lo que acontece entre ambos no es un delito ya que ha sido acordado entre dos adultos, pero eso no quiere decir que esté bien, ni mucho menos que sea una expresión de empoderamiento femenino o de libertad sexual. En este sentido, es interesante señalar que en el libro de Cumbres Borrascosas no aparece esta alusión repetida al consentimiento por lo que se trata de una estrategia contemporánea para validar narrativas problemáticas”, advierte. (Marita Alonso) (Translation)
While Lutz sets Emily’s life within the familiar context of the Brontë family as creative individuals passionately creating worlds in their tales, she draws on newly available notebooks and manuscripts of Emily’s, including some of her juvenilia and early poetry, to illustrate the writer’s determination to work tirelessly on her writing and to pay only marginal attention to family cares. As Lutz points out, “The longing that suffuses most of Brontë’s writing—for a lost self or land, the dead, or the liberty found in leaving the body behind—grew out of her own searching nature.” Brontë’s persistent haunting of the moors and her familiarity with the animal life around her led to her belief that the divine could be located in the natural world. According to Lutz, “The night, the stars, the moon—these were her poetic muses.”Brontë emerges from Lutz’s splendid biography as a “consummate artist who developed her genius quickly and with great confidence.” She started writing Wuthering Heights in 1845 at the age of 27; after much revision and scribbling, the novel was published in late 1847. Reviews were scarce and few were glowing; most cited the novel as coarse, savage and gloomy. As Lutz observes, it would take readers close to 100 years to catch up with Brontë’s accomplishment and “recognize in its weird, witchy, and ghostly passions a masterpiece.”Like Emerson, Brontë embraced nonconformity and individualism, and for her the boundaries between the personal and the cosmic were permeable. With her genius she was able to depict “the grandeur of changing skies and the moods of clouds and storms” and to capture the “heights that owe everything to the lowlands and the dead.”Lutz’s exhilarating prose animates This Dark Night, lending fresh insights into the life and writing of one of literature’s most enduring authors. (Henry L. Carrigan Jr.)
“It’s really hard to get at who Emily Brontë was,” biographer Deborah Lutz remarks, “but also interesting because it is challenging.” In This Dark Night: Emily Brontë, A Life, Lutz approaches the enigma of the “weird, strange, difficult, mysterious person” who created the monumental Wuthering Heights. For Lutz, who is a professor of 19th-century English and American literature at Penn State, this aura of mystery makes Emily the “most fascinating Brontë.” Using recently discovered poetry manuscripts and focusing closely on Emily’s day-to-day life, Lutz creates an unforgettable portrait of a multitalented genius. [...]Similarly, in This Dark Night, Lutz wanted to reconstruct the bodily experience of Emily, “how her body felt, what she smelled, what she heard, how cold she was, what kind of clothing she wore, [even] where she went to the bathroom,” she tells BookPage. Lutz’s research thus included walks on the treeless moors surrounding the family’s Haworth home, where the birdsong and fierce wind mirror what Lutz sees as Emily’s “inner wildness.” Lutz thinks of her as a “capital R” Romantic writer, like Lord Byron and William Wordsworth, poets Emily loved who yearned for immersion of the human self in the larger natural world. In Brontë’s case, her love of nature also included observations of how the Industrial Revolution, particularly mining, was altering her beloved moors. [...]A chief pleasure of This Dark Night is Lutz’s analysis of the drawings found in Brontë’s notebooks and marginalia, some of which are included in the biography. Her letters, poems and manuscripts are adorned with doodles that hint at the author’s personality. Some of these communicate “humor and lightness”: A silly drawing accompanying a somber poem indicates Brontë’s “refusal to grow up and her resistance to writerly rules.” A sketch of a gnarled tree reinforces her “devotion to the unreclaimed, uncultivated and scarred.” But she also doodled horrific little depictions of violent scenarios: decapitations, bludgeonings, piles of corpses. The gothic novels and stories Emily was reading at the time were redolent with violence, rape, flagellation and other gruesome and unsavory acts. These elements of her imagination emerge in the domestic and sexual violence depicted in her novel. As they say: Wuthering Heights is not a love story.Brontë was not a violent person, but she “wasn’t always the kind of person we would approve of today,” Lutz explains. She was “a misanthropic person . . . she didn’t always like other people, and part of that misanthropy comes out in [imagining acts of] sadism.” She prized solitude and liked dogs more than she liked people. She desired to lose herself in the natural world, as in her poem “I’m happiest when most away,” which imagines her “spirit wandering wide / through infinite immensity.” Lutz notes how many of Brontë’s poems imagine scenes of a lover weeping at the graveside of their beloved, as Heathcliff does over Catherine’s grave. Catherine’s dream of being flung out from heaven onto the heath of Wuthering Heights, where she “woke sobbing for joy,” exemplifies her desire to haunt the Earth. Perhaps, Lutz suggests, Brontë’s vision of an earthly afterlife is a form of grief, a way of finding her own mother’s ghost wandering the moonlit moors. By “excavat[ing] the undergloom,” Lutz writes, Emily penned “her great novel about the heights that owe everything to the lowlands and the dead.”When I ask Lutz how she feels about Emerald Fennell’s controversial film adaptation of Wuthering Heights, she diplomatically responds, “I’m glad that the movie has caused people to read the novel.” Her own favorite work based on Wuthering Heights comes from Anne Carson, whose 1994 poem “The Glass Essay” reflects on Brontë’s character as a “whacher.” As Lutz explains in This Dark Night, “whacher” was Brontë’s preferred spelling for “watcher,” as in someone who is primarily an observer of life. “Whacher is what she was,” Carson writes. “She whached God and humans and moor wind and open night. / She whached eyes, stars, inside, outside, actual weather.” Lutz’s own close observations of this weird, “whachful” and wonderful Brontë illuminate the author like never before. (Catherine Hollis)
A world away from the characters he’s often inhabited – whether laying on the sneer as Captain Flint in Starz’s pirate caper Black Sails or the smirk as Rochester in 2006’s Jane Eyre – he is open and likeable, warmth radiating from him in waves. Not a curled lip in sight. Then there’s his laugh: big and sonorous, the only one I’ve encountered that can unironically be described as a guffaw. (Patrick Smith)
Sat 09 May, 4:00 pm–5:00 pmAttic, Lawrence Batley Theatre, Queen Street HD1 2SPJoin Claire O’Callaghan & Dr Michael Stewart as they dismantle the myths that have long obscured Emily Brontë’s life and art.Emily Brontë is one of our best-known writers, but also one of the most enigmatic. Her only novel, Wuthering Heights, has been adapted across all media forms. The latest film adaptation, directed by Emerald Fennell, and starring Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie, is yet another interpretation.Dr Claire O’Callaghan’s Emily Brontë Reappraised – the only new biography of Emily to be published during the last 20 years – brings new insight into how we read and remember one of literature’s most enigmatic writers. It has just been re-published in a new expanded form.Join Claire and fellow Brontë expert Dr Michael Stewart as they dismantle the myths that have long obscured Emily Brontë’s life and art, revealing a bold, passionate, and politically attuned writer whose work still resonates today. Rediscover Emily Brontë for our times.
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by Polly Teale9th – 16th May 2026Directed by Andrea ParleWhitefield Garrick Theatre, Bank St, Whitefield, Whitefield, Bury M45 7JF, UKPolly Teale’s literary re-imagining of the turbulent lives of the Brontë sisters portrays the women from childhood to death, weaving back and forth in time. In 1845, their brother, Branwell Brontë, returned home to Haworth, West Yorkshire, in disgrace, having been dismissed from his employment following an affair with the mistress of the house.As their brother descends into alcoholism and insanity, his sisters, Anne, Charlotte and Emily, attempt to keep the household together and protect their father, Patrick. In the midst of chaos, they write more furiously than ever before. Focusing on their creation of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Jane Eyre, and Wuthering Heights respectively, their journeys and engagement with their characters offers a glimpse into the states of mind of the sisters during this time.Each feels tortured and ill-at-ease in their own way, as they struggle to align their literary creations with real life. With a certain amount of mystery surrounding the artistic legacy of the Brontë sisters, Polly Teale’s interpretation of their fractious relationship and tortured ambition presents a fascinating glimpse into the lives of three of Yorkshire’s most famous authors.
Bradford has a rich literary history shaped by women writers who made women the centre of their storytelling. From the Brontë sisters whose female protagonists were independent, fearless and revolutionary, such as Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Emily Brontë’s Catherine Earnshaw and Anne Brontë’s Helen Graham, to Times bestselling author Saima Mir, whose lead character Jia Khan of The Khan trilogy dismantles the deeply-rooted patriarchal institution of Bradford’s baradari, women writers from Bradford are gifted in their ability to tell powerful, eye-opening stories about women, offering both nuanced critiques of societal conditions and challenging norms. [...]It was while living in Bradford that I penned by own book, Hijab and Red Lipstick, which was recently released as a second edition. While my book is not set in Bradford, the city certainly nurtured my writing. From long hours spent writing at Waterstones café, whose staff diligently kept me fuelled with coffees and teas, to the advice and support I found at the Brontë Festival of Women’s Writing in Haworth, and the opportunities I have had as both an attendee and speaker at Bradford Literature Festival, the city really has a lot to offer for women writers like me. (Yousra Samir Imran)
One of 2026’s most buzzed-about historical novels is heading straight into the heart of old Hollywood glamour with a tinge of darkness.Bestselling author Natasha Lester is set to release her latest, The Chateau on Sunset, on June 2, 2026, and the novel is already being described as one not to miss thanks to its bold premise: a feminist reimagining of Jane Eyre set inside the infamous Chateau Marmont during Hollywood’s Golden Age. (Nina Derwin)
To her credit, Fennell understands that it’s more fun to smash a dollhouse than to construct one meticulously. Her sledgehammer approach to party scenes in her previous films is rivaled by Wuthering Heights’s opening sequence of a public hanging. Though we are supposed to be in the late 18th century, the mood is more medieval. After a few moments of the hanged man’s dying gasps, a Charli xcx song floods the soundtrack (the truly terrifying track “House,” which she recorded with John Cale), and the crowd erupts in a carnal frenzy. People roar, some start fucking, a nun closes her eyes, and parents pull away their children. The scene does not exist in Brontë’s novel, but it’s somehow closest to the monstrous vitality of that world, a place where the dead refuse to die. Too bad that Fennell never gives her characters the chance to live. (Genevieve Yue)
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by Charlotte Bronté. adapted by Polly TealeDirected by Nettie SheridanWith Izzy Boreham, Joseph Bentley, Evie McGuire, Polly Jones, Katie Ford, Steven Adams, Cathy Byrne, Jimmy Schofield.Brighton Little Theatre, Brighton9th-16th May, 2026The attic burns with secrets untold in our 800th Production!In Polly Teale’s bold reimagining, Bertha Mason - the infamous “madwoman in the attic”- steps from the shadows and emerges as the living embodiment of Jane’s suppressed longings and rage. A daring interpretation that reveals the storm beneath Charlotte Brontë’s classic. Dive into Jane’s inner world and unearth the psychological battles between passion and restraint, duty and desire. Arresting and emotionally charged, this adaptation breathes raw, urgent life into one of literature’s most enduring heroines — a Jane Eyre like no other.
Susan Dunne sheds fresh light on the relationship between Charlotte Brontë and Elizabeth Gaskell.Ten years of research have uncovered a wealth of details about the pair's friendship, which lasted from their first meeting in Windermere in 1850 to Charlotte’s death in 1855.The book traces their parallel development from unknown writers to literary giants, and reveals more about the controversy surrounding Gaskell’s The Life of Charlotte Brontë.Susan says: "Charlotte Brontë’s friendship with the novelist Elizabeth Gaskell is one of the most important literary friendships ever and it led to one of the most controversial and enduring biographies ever written."As a student and fan of both writers, I wanted to know more about the friendship – how did they first hear about each other, what brought them together and what did they think of each other?"It was fascinating to find out about their shared views on areas as varied as national and international events, the position of women in mid-Victorian Britain and more domestic concerns such as child rearing. And then they share a lot of gossip about contemporary famous figures as well as discussing the art of writing and their experiences at the hands of critics."As well as considering them as writers, the book looks at how their domestic lives overlapped and examines the different challenges married and unmarried women faced at the time.Susan adds: "Charlotte took an active interest in the lives of the Gaskell children. She wasn’t by most accounts very maternal but the youngest daughter, Julia, was her favourite."I was also intrigued to find out about Elizabeth’s efforts to bring about Charlotte’s marriage to Arthur Bell Nicholls, and her professed willingness to abort Charlotte’s unborn child if it would have helped save her life."And then of course there’s all the controversy over The Life of Charlotte Brontë.“Elizabeth Gaskell tends to get a bit of a bad rap amongst Brontë fans, with some biographers accusing her of duplicity by writing about Charlotte to the press in the hope of getting a commission to write the biography, but I’ve come up with some clear evidence that this did not happen." (Alistair Shand)
4K Blu-ray Video and Audio Review:“Wuthering Heights” is a visually stunning film, with its set design and cinematography being as integral to telling the story the way Fennell wanted as the story itself, and this 4K 2160p/HDR10/Dolby Vision transfer delivers her vision in spectacular fashion for home audiences to enjoy. The details, lighting, camera angles, fog and various other changes to the weather throughout the film all come through gloriously in one of the best looking 4K transfers of the year.On the audio side of things we’ve also got a remarkable Dolby Atmos mix that surrounds the viewer both in fantastic sound effects that just bring you into the world, as well as the beautiful original score by Willis, and the perfectly placed original songs by Charli XCX. The dialogue is crisp and clear, front and center, never battling for center stage. An audio mix like this next to a top tier 4K transfer like we’ve received and whether you love “Wuthering Heights” or not, there’s no denying that Warner Bros. has delivered a masterful home release that fans can devour.Special Features:Audio Commentary – If you’re going to want to hear a commentary from anyone involved in this film it’s going to be Fennell, and that’s what we get here. The writer/director dives deep into the creation of the film, her mindset with the story she’s trying to tell, as well as the casting, the crew, the sets, the music…you name it, she likely touches upon it. As a whole this is a track well worth listening to after watching the film first.Threads of Desire – This featurette is just under 7-minutes in length and aptly focuses on the costume design in the film and the importance they play to the story and characters.The Legacy of Love and Madness – This feaurette is five-and-a-half-minutes in length and sees various cast and crew talk about Brontë’s novel, and how for some this was their first time diving into the world. They talk about how this film isn’t an exact adaptation of Wuthering Heights and shouldn’t be viewed as such, which is something I feel many have missed.Building a Fever Dream – This featurette is just over 12-minutes and sees Fennell and Margot Robbie talk about the production, the set, and the unique brand of storytelling in place here that they hope audiences will latch onto. (Brendan Campbell)
Like so many, I spent part of my Valentine’s Day at the theatre, watching Emerald Fennell’s highly anticipated (and equally controversial) new film with a friend. Having consumed enough online discourse, I went in with low expectations and the assumption that I wouldn't enjoy it. In the end, my low expectations were somewhat exceeded, and I ultimately gave it a solid 3-star Letterboxd review.So, does Wuthering Heights do justice to the novel it's based on? The short answer: Not exactly. But that shouldn't stop you from seeing it for yourself, nor should it stop you from enjoying it. [...]If we're answering the question of whether Fennell's movie "did justice" to Brontë's Wuthering Heights, then the answer would objectively be no. But if one is asking whether or not the movie is good, then the answer is more murky. It's a visually beautiful film with an easy-to-follow plot and emotional moments (Even a skeptical viewer like me cried at one point).Ultimately, no amount of social media discourse or negative reviews should interfere with whether or not you decide to see a movie, or even whether or not you enjoy it. So whether you're a die-hard Brontë fan or someone unfamiliar with the novel, Wuthering Heights might just be for you. (Amy Guerin)
The two leads have an electric chemistry as the doomed Cathy and her toxic lover Heathcliffe but while it’s stunning to look at, their volatile, cruel and tumultuous relationship ultimately becomes a bit of a slog. (James Wigney)
Tea time has always been a very prominent cultural part of the British era. It finds ample mentions in poems and novels of that time. From Jane Eyre’s lavish parties to Jane Austen’s portrayal of the elite class, it finds a mention there. Items like freshly baked breads, scones, seasonal jams and a variety of tea often formed a part of this set-up. (Subhadrika Sen)
This enduring oversight could be for all of these reasons or a combination of some. Still, I resent the descriptions of Anne by journalists such as Charlotte Cory as the “runt of the literary litter”, and urge readers and Brontë fans to give her work a chance in its own right. (Amy Wilcockson)
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by Deborah LutzW.W. NortonISBN: 978-1-324-03711-8Deborah Lutz compellingly captures Emily Jane Brontë, extraordinary poet and author of the incomparable Wuthering Heights, with deep insight and glorious prose.Emily Brontë (1818–1848) was only twenty-seven-years old when she began work on one of the most important novels in the English language. Two years later in 1847, she completed Wuthering Heights. It took the world almost a century to catch up to Brontë’s masterpiece, and it has taken even longer to know Brontë—an elusive figure, with a ghostly legacy provoked by her early death and the loss (and likely destruction) of almost all her personal papers.Drawing on formerly inaccessible notebooks and manuscripts, This Dark Night constructs a portrait of Brontë, her famous writing sisters Charlotte and Anne, and the effect of their sisters’ and mother’s tragic deaths. In the first full-length biography in over twenty years, renowned scholar Deborah Lutz sketches the days of a woman crafting otherworldly fiction while running her father’s parsonage: writing interweaving with household work, daydreaming, and exploring the rough-hewn outdoors.As she traces the influence of Brontë’s life and work, Lutz follows how Brontë’s fantastical early poems of the night sky, women rulers, and outsiders and rebels grew into the stormy, transcendent Wuthering Heights. Lutz also illuminates the overlooked ways that the legendary writer addressed debates of her time that still resonate today, including questions of gender and sexuality, race and class, and rapid industrialization set against the natural world.From her menagerie of dogs and birds to the beloved moors that Brontë wandered and later emblazoned in her novel, Lutz depicts the passions of an author at odds with convention. Uniting the domestic and the cosmic, This Dark Night plumbs the life and writing of this idiosyncratic woman, dark soul, and monumental genius.
